


we had a bonding moment

by chidorinnn



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), Developing Friendships, Gen, Lance (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Parental Red Lion (Voltron), Post-Episode: s04e01 Code of Honor, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:28:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27828265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chidorinnn/pseuds/chidorinnn
Summary: The Red Lion can sense when Keith's in danger, even after he leaves the team. She insists on making it Lance's problem.
Relationships: Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Red Lion (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Voltron: Legendary Defender Team, Lance & Red Lion (Voltron)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 97





	we had a bonding moment

**Author's Note:**

> The myth of "consensual" full-time space ninja work — isn't there someone you forgot to ask?
> 
> "I consent," says Keith.  
> "We consent," says the team.  
> "I don't," says Red.

They're in the middle of a show when Lance's control of Red starts to slip. One moment, they're flying in formation, the crowd going wild beneath them; the next, a burning wave of _DANGER_ crashes over him from out of nowhere. He has to grip the controls extra hard for a moment, and he can't quite shake the feeling that Red could easily slip out and go somewhere else entirely if he were to ease up for even a second.

It doesn't make sense, though — this planet has long been liberated. No one's attacking them, and there's no reason to even be on guard. It's a _parade_ , for heaven's sake — one last victory march to rally the locals to the Coalition's side, a triumphant end to centuries of Imperial tyranny.

—and yet, for some reason, Red very badly wants to be somewhere that is not here. "What's going on, girl?" Lance asks, gently rubbing the console before him like he would one of the cats back at home. "Everything okay?"

The answer comes in another harsh, burning wave of _DANGER_.

"Who's in danger?" he asks. "What's going on?"

Red's answer is to crank up the heat in the cockpit, and that's just not fair. It's not like he's fluent in magical lion-speak — least of all one that he's only just started piloting.

"Look," he huffs, impatiently, "whatever it is, we'll check it out after this, okay? We've got a job to do here."

Abruptly, Red goes back to normal — so abruptly that he's not sure if she's mad at him now, or if the danger she was so worried about has passed.

The rest of the parade finishes without a hitch; Shiro gets his part right and everything. Red's not any grumpier than usual, so Lance puts it out of his mind for the time being.

—but later that day, as he stumbles into the kitchen for a late-night snack, he sees Shiro sitting at the table with a tablet propped up before him, quietly laughing. Keith's there on the screen, smiling and looking a lot less exhausted than he seemed the last time Lance saw him — and his right arm is all bandaged up, resting in a sling.

It's really none of his business, what Keith does with the Blade these days or how much he likes to tell Shiro about it — but after the weirdness with Red earlier, he can't bring himself to let it lie. "The heck happened to _you_?" Lance asks before he can think twice, peering at the tablet from over Shiro's shoulder.

Keith gives him a _look_. "Hello to you too, Lance."

"Things got a little dicey on his last mission," says Shiro. It has to be an understatement, though, for Red to have reacted so strongly to someone who isn't even her pilot anymore.

"I'm okay," says Keith, like a liar. "It looks worse than it actually is."

"Try again," says Shiro, blunt and unamused.

Keith groans, and buries his face in his uninjured hand. "I'll be okay in a few days?"

"Much better," says Shiro with a serene smile.

"Well, so long as you're not dead or dying," says Lance comfortable in the knowledge that he really can put this behind him after all. He waves at both Shiro and the tablet on his way out of the kitchen. "G'night!"

* * *

The next time it happens, they're escorting a fleet of cargo ships two systems away. It's not one singular, burning wave this time, but rather repeated jabs of _Danger_. _Danger_. _Danger_.

"C'mon, Keith..." Lance groans, wiping sweat off his brow. "Get your shit together." It can't be that bad of a mission, though — it's uncomfortably hot inside Red, with how high she's cranked up the heat, but it doesn't look like she's going to fly off the handle anytime soon.

—but there's still that irritating pulse of _Danger_. _Danger_. _Danger_.

"Look, this has to stop," Lance very much does not whine. "Keith's over there, doing super secret ninja spy things — and we're over here, _not_ doing super secret ninja spy things. So can we _not_ focus on him for, like, two seconds?"

Red doesn't have anything to say to that, but he can't quite shake the feeling that she's not exactly happy with him right now.

"I don't even know why you're so worried about the guy," he grumbles. "It's not like he wants to be here anyway."

There's a dramatic swell of _heat_ , and — oops. Too much?

"You do realize that this is the guy who _left us_ , right?" he snaps. "Besides — why do you care so much, anyway? _I'm_ your Paladin, not him."

The last part comes out a more bitterly than it probably should. Red lets out a low rumble — not happy, exactly, but there's something like acknowledgment there.

"And even if he _was_ still your Paladin..." he continues, "... what are you going to do? He's doing super secret ninja spy things, on a super secret mission somewhere. _Under cover_. I don't know how things worked where you're from, but as far as I know? Magical robot lions charging in willy-nilly are bad news for super secret ninja spies trying to get things done without being noticed."

Red lets out another rumble at that — grumpy, maybe, but not angry. Either way, not happy with Lance.

He groans. "All right, _fine_. If it's bothering you that much, I'll check in with him after this. Happy?"

Another rumble — satisfied and smug. He can't bring himself to stay annoyed at her for too long, though.

Red's quiet for the rest of the mission, and the escort ends without a hitch. It's a quiet, anticlimactic end to an otherwise quiet day. This, Allura would say, is what progress looks like — countless civilizations under the thumb of imperial rule, all of them coming to terms with the reality that it's no longer their only option. It feels nice to be _necessary_ in that regard — to still be needed even when it's no longer necessary to fight so much.

... but that's not really true, is it? _Someone_ is still fighting, somewhere, and it would be horribly naive of them to think that their job is done when the onus of it is no longer on them.

(Keith, who had been so insistent that their work in dismantling the empire is incomplete, had left to fight that battle all on his own — not entirely, because at least he has the Blade backing him up, but why did no one at the Castle think to _listen_?)

Lance isn't in the habit of breaking his promises, so as he curls up under a blanket that night, after taking a nice, long shower, he sets up a tablet before them and accesses the secure communications channel that Pidge had opened up for the Blade. It rings once, twice, three times before it connects — and he resists the urge to sigh in relief when it's Keith that shows up on the screen, and not one of the other Blades. That's one awkward conversation he'd _very_ much like to avoid, thank you very much.

Keith frowns at him, but there's no heat behind it — not in the way his shoulders are hiked up, tension evident in the way he holds himself like he's ready to jump into action at a moment's notice. "Lance?" he says instead of greeting him like a normal person. "What's wrong?"

Oh, _come on_. He gets this enough from his mom. "Hello to you too, Mullet," he says, waving lazily. "Just thought I'd say hi... see how you were doing?"

Keith arches one eyebrow. "You... wanted to see how I was doing," he repeats.

"Yep," Lance replies, grinning.

" _You_ wanted to see... how I was doing," Keith says again, blinking.

Lance rolls over onto his stomach and re-positions the tablet. "Is that so weird?"

"You tell me."

Aw, hell. What's he supposed to say to _that_? What's he even _doing_ here, hitting this guy up like they're old friends and not reluctant teammates — _former_ teammates at that?

... but they all said that they'd be here for him, no matter how far away he goes. Keith's a... special case, in more ways than one, but Lance knows from experience that even if you tell someone you'll be there for them, they'll never feel comfortable enough to reach out to you if you don't make it a point to reach out to them from time to time. "Looks like your arm's doing better," he says awkwardly.

Keith looks downward as he brings his arm up into the frame. "Yeah, I guess," he replies. "Took the bandages off a few days ago."

—which means that he evidently jumped right back into doing super secret ninja spy things after getting a clean bill of health. _Typical_.

He looks less exhausted now, though — less run-down now that he's not trying to balance two different teams at once — but he can't be looking after himself all that well, if it's got Red this worried about him. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to take a day off," says Lance, perhaps a bit more seriously than he'd like for it to sound.

Keith laughs, humorlessly. "Maybe not, but it might kill somebody else."

... no chill. Absolutely no chill whatsoever.

Keith's face scrunches up into something that's not quite a frown, and his eyes go oddly soft. "Are you _sure_ there's nothing wrong?"

And that's part of the problem, isn't it? That, apparently, no one on this team except maybe Shiro can contact him like this without the expectation that they need him to do something for them. "No, nothing's wrong!" says Lance, resolutely ignoring the way his voice cracks. "We're doing _great_."

"You're acting weird," says Keith, far too bluntly for Lance to ever open up to him about the can of worms that is Red's mounting concern for her old Paladin's well being, amidst what's perhaps the most peaceful time that Lance has ever seen this far away from Earth.

"Maybe _you're_ the one that's being weird," says Lance.

It's immature, sure, but it's enough to cut through the weird tension that's made it all but impossible for this conversation to devolve into the same pointless bickering the two of them were once known for. Keith frowns, and — _there_ it is. There's the grump that Lance has come to know and love!

"What are you even doing up this late, anyway?" asks Keith.

"Hey, same to you, Mullet," says Lance. "Go to bed."

" _You_ go to bed," Keith snaps back.

Lance lifts the tablet, so that the camera pans his bed and the blanket that he is very comfortably and snugly wrapped in. "Already there!"

"Good _bye_ , Lance," Keith grumbles, and ends the call.

It's... not the conversation that Lance had had in mind, when he promised Red that he'd talk to him — but it's the closest to _normal_ he's felt in a long, long time.

* * *

The next time it happens, they've just finished a battle.

They've formed Voltron, just finished wiping out a particularly large and evil-looking war vessel, when all of a sudden, Red all but screams at him: **_DANGER._**

The cockpit grows uncomfortably, searingly hot. His head goes oddly fuzzy, waves of _distress_ washing over him and threatening to swallow him whole.

Then Voltron falls apart. It happens abruptly, all of them sent careening off in different directions, cast adrift. Lance thanks his lucky stars that the battle is over, because Red won't stop screaming. She's not _really_ screaming — not in the way normal people might — but Lance can feel it all the same. It's this awful, gut-wrenching despair, a painful burning sensation that settles solidly in his chest, and it's almost enough to drive him to tears right along with her.

"Wh-What just happened?" Hunk asks over the intercom.

"That was... the Red Lion, was it not?" asks Allura.

"Lance, are you all right?" asks Shiro.

—but before he can answer, Red _bolts_. "Whoa, whoa, whoa—hey! Easy, girl!" He pulls on the controls, hard, but it does nothing; she charges on ahead anyway, as if he's not here at all.

"Lance, what did you _do_?" asks Pidge.

"Nothing!" he shouts. He tries to disengage — pulls on the breaks, yanks on the controls to divert her towards literally any other direction. Nothing works. "I can't stop this thing!"

"It's _Keith_ ," says Allura with a quiet gasp. "The Red Lion is..."

"What does Keith have to do with any of this?" snaps Pidge. "He's not even here!"

"Lance, you cannot let her go to him," says Allura with forced calm. "Do you understand? If Keith is supposed to be under cover, and she goes to him now, there _will_ be consequences. Both for him, and for the Blade of Marmora."

"Wait, what?" Lance shouts. "How do you even know about that?"

... but they'd all been in Voltron together, when Red first started freaking out. They had to have felt that. They _saw_.

"Hunk, you're the closest to the Red Lion at the moment," says Allura. "Stop her. The Yellow Lion can take it."

"Roger!" Hunk answers, as he positions Yellow right in the line of Red's mad dash. "Hang on tight, buddy!" Lance squeezes his eyes shut and braces for impact; the entire cockpit _jolts_.

"Pidge," says Allura, "you and I will tow the Red Lion back to the Castle. Be ready: she _will_ put up a fight."

"Got it," answers Pidge.

Green and Blue position themselves to either side of Red, shoulder to shoulder, boxing her in — and Red _screams_. "I know, girl," says Lance, rubbing the console before him. "I know."

Red jerks to the left, then to the right — but between Blue, Green, and Yellow, there's nowhere to go but the opposite direction. "Shiro, you bring up the rear," Allura finishes. "Make sure that nobody follows us."

"Yes, Princess," says Shiro, exhaling sharply, positioning Black behind them and effectively sealing off Red's last remaining exit.

—and so, they go back home. It's slow, awkward going — and Lance can't stop crying, even while mumbling repeated apologies in both English and Spanish, because it's not _fair_. It's not fair that Red can feel it, when someone she loves is in danger, while she can't do anything about it. It's terrifying enough, just imagining how much trouble Keith must be in to elicit this sort of reaction from Red.

"We'll get him back, okay girl?" says Lance, rubbing the console. It's an empty promise — one he can't possibly back up, when Keith has made it clear enough that he has no intentions of resuming his duties as a Paladin of Voltron, let alone its leader.

Red has to be pushed back into the Castle's hangars, the exit barricaded by Yellow until so that she can't take off before it's completely sealed off. Slowly, too slowly, she calms — like a puppet with all of its strings cut. If it's about Keith's safety, that could mean... nothing good. Perhaps the worst case scenario.

(And they'd let him go so easily. No one would say it aloud, but there was a part of them that were _happy_ to see him go that day — because it was one less complication to their already complicated lives. They called him their leader, only to complain about it every step of the way — only to remind him, constantly, of all of his failures, of all the times he couldn't quite match up to the kind of leader Shiro was. No wonder he didn't want to stay. No wonder he felt that he was no longer welcome here. No wonder he considered his best option to be going off and dying for this war, as if that was what it would take for his life to mean anything at all to them.)

"I'm sorry, Red," Lance whispers in a breaking voice. "I'm so sorry."

And what the heck is _he_ doing here? He should be out there with his team, demanding answers from the Blade of Marmora — but he can't bring himself to leave Red. Maybe at least part of it is for his own comfort, but he can't leave her like this, when she's this upset. It'd be just about the worst thing he could do to her.

Slowly, she calms. He feels it in the way the heat starts to seep out of the cockpit, bit by bit. The burning in his chest fades, abruptly, to a solid warmth — no longer painful. "Does... that means he's okay?" he asks, almost too afraid to voice it aloud lest he jinx something.

But then Red _hums_ , and there is no pain or distress fueling it.

Slowly, Lance lets himself exhale. "Stupid mullet..." he grumbles. He takes a moment to rub the sweat and tears away from his face, and emerges from Red.

* * *

Hours later, a Galra cruiser docks in the Castle's hangars. They all go to meet it — Shiro and Coran are armed with a stretcher, and have long since prepped the medbay for Keith's arrival.

The facts are these: on his last mission with the Blade of Marmora, Keith had been caught in an explosion and left to float in space with a busted jetpack and a tear in his suit. Even more ridiculous: this isn't the first time this precise sequence of events has happened. This time, however, was _exceptionally_ bad, as if all the other times hadn't been more than minor inconveniences.

Geez... no wonder Red had been so freaked out.

An exceptionally fluffy-looking Galra woman emerges from the ship and, with far more gentleness and grace than Lance had ever thought possible of Galra, sets Keith down on the stretcher. He's unconscious, but there's a deep furrow to his brow — as if he'd been caught in a moment of pain, before he went under. "He's stable," says the Blade. "I can promise you that much."

"Thank you so much for taking the trouble to bring him here," says Allura, politely.

"Of course," says the Blade — and at that, Lance counts his lucky stars that no one at the Blades' base had tried medicating Keith. Shiro had mentioned once, a long while back, that a lot of Galra treatments and medications were toxic to humans. _How_ Shiro had known this, Lance doesn't want to know — but it's a good thing, that the Blade agreed to send Keith back here for treatment instead of hacking away at it themselves through trial and error.

Keith spends about six hours in the pod, and sleeps for another twelve. Then, when he's ready, he joins them for breakfast.

Lance finds him sandwiched between Shiro and Pidge. "That guy's gotta be senile," Keith rants, with none of the heat and anger Lance has come to expect from him. "Keeps callin' me 'Kro-something.'"

"In a good way?" asks Pidge. "Like, does he at least sound happy when he's screwing it up?"

"How is there a _good_ way to get someone's name wrong?" Keith retorts.

"It could just be that he just... doesn't know how to say your name," says Shiro. "I know some Galra had trouble pronouncing certain English sounds."

"Or it could just be that you remind him a lot of someone he knows," says Pidge. "All my teachers before the Garrison called me 'Matt' at least once a year."

"I don't think I've ever met a 'Kro-something' at the base, though," says Keith.

"But you said he's pretty old, right?" asks Shiro.

"Well, yeah," says Keith. "Not _Zarkon_ old, but... yeah, pretty old."

Shiro gives him a sad smile, rubs his shoulder all sympathetic-like — and this is _way too sad_ an end to what should be a normal conversation, so Lance takes it as his cue to butt in. "You're looking a lot better, Mullet."

"Oh look," says Pidge, dryly. "Someone else who won't get your name right."

Keith grins, pushing his chair back as he stands up. "I'll catch you guys later," he says, waving to Shiro and Pidge before leaving. Lance waits for one moment, two — and then Shiro and Pidge, in scarily perfect unison, jerk their heads towards the door that Keith just left through.

He's waiting for him outside, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. "I heard that Red was giving you trouble earlier," he says when Lance catches up. "Sorry about that. I'll talk to her about it."

"You really don't have to do that, dude," says Lance. "I've got it under control."

"Yeah, but it's not really about control, is it?" asks Keith. "You're trying to bond with Red, but that's impossible when she's worried about me."

"Try this," says Lance. "Red is worried about you, because you keep going off and almost getting killed on super secret ninja spy missions." And what he doesn't say is: they're _all_ worried about him, when he goes off and almost gets killed on super secret ninja spy missions.

"You... realize that's not good, right?" asks Keith. "She's _your_ Lion now."

"Nah, dude," Lance retorts. "I'm starting to think that the Lions aren't really _ours_ , you know? Oh, we're _theirs_ for sure, it's just..."

It's just that Red had been so completely distressed because she couldn't get it out of her head that someone she loved was hurt. It's just that Blue wouldn't speak to him anymore, because he'd been too quick to discard her in favor of something newer and shinier, and he's not sure he'll ever get that bond back, no matter how much he apologizes and begs. It's just that Black was all over the place, emotionally speaking, when her old Paladin before all of this had hurt her so badly.

"I don't know, man. Lion-Paladin bonds are _weird_."

Keith huffs out a quiet laugh. "You can say that again." He averts his eyes downward, his eyes going oddly soft. "So... we're good?"

Lance grins, and slings an arm over his shoulder. "We're good."

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading :)


End file.
